This was the consistent style of Wang Ren and his group. They had no desire to travel together and only tagged along under the pressure of the production team.
The reason they dared to repeatedly compete with everyone else for food was simply because they deeply understood that the survival of the fittest was the rule of the natural world.
Furthermore, this was an individual competition program. If they wanted to win, everyone else had to lose.
Wei Heng sidestepped to dodge. A diagonally cut branch whistled past right in front of him, which caused him to fall slightly behind Ah Hu.
“Let’s race,” Ah Hu panted heavily, his smile malicious. “Whoever catches it first gets it.”
With a calm gaze, Wei Heng notched a bamboo arrow onto his bow. Unable to see the exact location of the sheep, he could only guess its rough position while running by listening to the rustling movements in the bushes. His eyes turned sharp, the bowstring pulled taut, and the arrow shot forth like the wind.
However, the arrow merely grazed the sheep’s hind leg without hitting it squarely.
Ah Hu’s expression darkened. He truly had underestimated Wei Heng. Running at such a furious pace, his upper body remained remarkably steady, and using such a crudely crafted bow and arrow, he had actually managed to graze the sheep’s hind leg.
Instead of continuing to chase the sheep, he turned around to attack Wei Heng.
When they first set off, the cameraman had only followed for a short distance before falling behind, long since left by the wayside in the middle of the trail. Therefore, whatever he did to Wei Heng would go completely unseen.
Having witnessed Wei Heng handle Old Ghost earlier, he could tell Wei Heng was not to be underestimated, but he figured Wei Heng had only gained the upper hand out of sheer luck.
Besides, Wang Ren was clearly very interested in Wei Heng, and that was the last thing he wanted to see.
Catching the flash of a stabbing dagger in his peripheral vision, Wei Heng tilted his head to dodge, pressing the side of his palm against Ah Hu’s arm and sliding up to his shoulder. His fingers curled into a claw, gripping Ah Hu’s shoulder and cleanly forcing it backward. With a crisp crack, Ah Hu’s knife-wielding arm was instantly dislocated.
Ah Hu let out a muffled grunt of pain, but his left hand reacted with equal speed, catching the dagger and executing a reverse back stab.
Wei Heng had already slipped behind Ah Hu. Releasing Ah Hu’s arm, he grabbed the wrist of his counter attacking left hand, his fingertips digging into the wrist bone and twisting in opposition to test his strength.
Refusing to accept defeat, Ah Hu gritted his teeth and tried to muster the strength to break free, only to find his power gradually draining away.
He had no idea where Wei Heng got such immense strength. Ah Hu only felt a formidable surge of kinetic energy compressing inward against his wrist, ravaging his hand bones until the pain peaked and melted into a numb lack of sensation.
Clearly, Wei Heng was holding back. Otherwise, dislocating Ah Hu’s wrist would have been as easy as pie, and back when he took out his arm, he could have easily ripped the bones and flesh apart.
“Accept your loss.” Wei Heng’s tone carried the weight of a warning, as well as a declaration of his inevitable victory.
Without lingering, he pushed the obstructing Ah Hu aside and resumed his pursuit of the sheep.
Zhou Youlan had kept his eyes fixed on Wei Heng’s direction, but after stumbling into a rocky pit and scrambling back up, he had been left far behind. If he hadn’t kept his eyes peeled, he would have lost him completely.
Ah Hu still refused to give up and followed closely behind.
When Zhou Youlan crossed paths with Ah Hu, the latter looked to be in terrible shape. His right arm dangled limply and vertically, clearly dislocated, while his left hand trembled incessantly like someone suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Just chasing a sheep and he ended up in this state?
Catching sight of a darting figure ahead, Zhou Youlan called out, “Wei Heng!”
He originally wanted to tell Wei Heng to stop chasing, worrying what they would do if they lost their bearings and couldn’t find their way back, but Wei Heng paid him no mind, not even turning his head to check whether he had been heard.
With no other choice, he hurried after him. As the deputy team leader and group captain, he couldn’t simply abandon his team member and let him wander off alone.
In the wilderness, sticking together at night was always safer than going solo.
The two of them caught up to Wei Heng, with Zhou Youlan repeatedly shouting for Wei Heng to halt. However, Wei Heng remained utterly focused on pulling his bow and tightening the string.
Stopping in his tracks, Wei Heng spotted two trees standing remarkably close together in the southeast.
The mountain sheep had clearly lost its bearings, running in erratic circles between the trees, presenting a prime opportunity for capture.
“Wei Heng,” Zhou Youlan panted, his physical condition bolstered by daily workouts, though he was still out of breath. “If you can’t catch it, just stop chasing. Wait, wait.”
Releasing the taut bowstring, Wei Heng leaped onto a tree trunk, spun around, and planted both feet firmly between the two tree trunks, suspending himself steadily in mid air.
Before Zhou Youlan had even caught his breath twice, he watched Wei Heng use a lower trunk for leverage to vault several meters high. Extending his slender legs to brace against opposite sides, he stabilized himself in an instant, pulled the bamboo arrow from his back, and notched it to the string. Then, with a sharp whoosh,
They couldn’t see which direction the arrow flew, only vaguely catching sight of Wei Heng standing tall with straightened legs, his tense arms relaxing. It must have hit because they heard the cry of the sheep.
Wei Heng dropped down from the height. Zhou Youlan initially wanted to rush over to help. After all, jumping down from such a height, what if he lost his footing and fell?
Yet before he could even reach the base of the tree, Wei Heng had already landed smoothly in a half crouch.
Palming the ground to push himself up, Wei Heng didn’t have time to acknowledge Zhou Youlan. He slung his bow across his back and swiftly shifted his direction toward the forest ahead.
Zhou Youlan could only watch as that slender silhouette moved like a phantom. His high ponytail fluttered sharply in the air, darting briskly through the mountain wilderness like the wind, so fast that one couldn’t even catch a glimpse of his flying hair tips.
Wei Heng estimated that his previous arrow had only pierced the sheep’s front leg. At that distance, the shaft wouldn’t have penetrated deeply. If it escaped, all their efforts tonight would go to waste.
“Hey!” Seeing Wei Heng take off again, Zhou Youlan had no choice but to follow.
Meanwhile, Ah Hu gritted his teeth through the pain as he popped his own right arm back into its socket and quickly gave chase.
Pushing forward a bit further, Wei Heng slowed his pace. Night had fallen completely, and visibility beyond five meters was virtually zero.
He only remembered the general direction, unsure of the exact spot.
Catching up to him with great difficulty, Zhou Youlan saw Wei Heng slowing down and adopting a cautious posture, which prompted him to quiet his steps and regulate his breath as well.
Wei Heng cocked his ear to listen. Behind him, Zhou Youlan’s breathing was heavy, and mingling with it was another set of pants. He picked up a pebble and tossed it ahead, abruptly stirring up a commotion to his front right.
The two rushed forward, and Ah Hu emerged from the opposite side, clutching his dagger with clear intentions of playing the sniper waiting to reap the rewards.
After all, as stated earlier, whoever caught it first got it.
Wei Heng refused to give him that opportunity. Moving a step ahead of Ah Hu, he dropped to one knee and drove the dagger cleanly and decisively into the sheep’s neck.
A jolt of shock went through Zhou Youlan. “!”
Did he just see an afterimage of Wei Heng?
That blink and you miss it teleportation speed. Was that something a human could pull off?
Yet he wasn’t entirely sure if the dim lighting had simply tricked his tired eyes.
Because standing beside Wei Heng was Ah Hu, who had also executed a rapid sliding kneel right up to the sheep, though he had been a fraction slower than Wei Heng in landing the blow.
With practiced speed, Wei Heng pulled the dagger free. Warm blood splattered across his cheek, and he held up the dripping blade horizontally to face Ah Hu, issuing a cold, intimidating warning: “Get lost.”
Beneath the sparse branches and leaves, under the dark blue twilight, it took Zhou Youlan a long time to clearly make out Wei Heng’s appearance.
Sweat dampening his temples had plastered a few stray locks against his brow. The bloodstain on his cheek lacked a clear outline, appearing merely as a dark, droplet shaped smudge, but what stood out with crystal clarity was the cold ruthlessness shining in his clear, aloof eyes.
He was breathing heavily too. As his chest rose and fell, the fine beads of sweat gathered densely into single droplets that slid down the bridge of his perky nose.
Like a blood stained blossom exuding a bizarre, alluring, and enchanting charm, making one want to shatter it completely.
Zhou Youlan’s Adam’s apple rolled heavily and slowly. Following the prolonged sprint, his heart was hammering at a frantic frequency, pounding against his ribs like it wanted to burst out of his chest.
Perhaps it was merely a physiological reaction to intense physical exertion.
Zhou Youlan made no move to stop Wei Heng. He knew that if Ah Hu snatched it first, Wang Ren and his crew wouldn’t share a single piece of meat with them.
Dissatisfied and unwilling, Ah Hu realized he stood no chance of overpowering the two of them.
Wiping the dagger clean against the sheep’s wool, Wei Heng asked, “Didn’t I tell you to stay put?”
“If you just charge into the forest like this, what would you do if something went wrong?”
Wei Heng felt a trace of surprise. He had assumed Zhou Youlan chased after him all the way because he was worried the prey would escape, especially given how many days they had suffered from food shortages. He hadn’t expected him to be worried about his safety.
“Didn’t you hate me so much?” Wei Heng said.